The continuum hypothesis In the original story, an old actor recalls his past life. Here Josef Nadj goes on a search for the common thread that weaves memories together.

Cherry-Brandy… the words tinkle and almost stagger against each other, stagger almost. Like the ghosts of a dance reared in the heavy fumes of intoxication, at a time when the day of awareness begins to dawn. Josef Nadj slips through the dark, half-open door of memory, on the blurry edge of illusion and reality, to explore the links that, as time goes by, tie a living being with the past. For this piece which is part of the France-Russia Year 2010 programme, the choreographer and refined reader drew on The Swan Song (Calchas). This short story by Chekhov is about an old actor, abandoned to his intemperance, in the seedy solitude of a deserted theatre, and who, assailed by the racket of his memories, dissects his personal and artistic past. Josef Nadj, together with twelve accomplices, is searching the hidden side of this “little drama”; he confronts a naked stage, an empty and primitive space, where the tenacious shadows and secret illusions gathered along the path twinkle, until he finds the origins of his art.